“Stank-a-Dank” Crock Pot Pork Spare Ribs

Every time I make them, my Chinese 5-Spice Pork Ribs fill the whole house for hours with their intensely sweet, pungent aroma. For this reason, my husband recently started calling them “Stank-a-Dank Ribs.”

So, after elaborate polling and random double-blind sampling a Facebook vote, “Stank-a-Dank Ribs” became their official new name.

Preparing Fresh Pork

Whether cooking ground pork, chops, ribs, loins or roasts, you should always prepare an acid marinade for your fresh pork. This could be as simple as a 12–24 hour soak in vinegar and water (2:1), plus some sea salt, or it could be a more elaborate marinade with seasonings and spices to make dinner extra special.

Our ancestors have prepared pork like this for thousands of years, and they were pretty smart, after all. And even today, many people count on acidic marinades to make their pork dishes really shine. This recipe follows that tradition.

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32 Comments

Roel / December 22, 2014

How many people will this feed? I’ve never used a slow cooker, and I just started learning how to cook. I want to make this for about 6 people. What should I do?

So I’m making this recipe again (awesome ribs and I can’t get enough of them) and I wondered if I could do a similar thing with pork loin.

Would this work if I soaked a pork loin overnight in water, vinegar and sea salt as per the rib recipe called and then mixed the remaining ingredients and covered the loin with it? I’m thinking it may work.

Cooking them up right now! So looking forward to trying them. Instead of putting on the garlic powder I put two cloves of chopped garlic in the marinade instead. I couldn’t get my hands on the Chinese 5-spice powder that you suggested, so I had to use McCormick Asian Seasoning instead. But these are going to make a great lunch today, and most likely a few other meals this week.

Yum! These look delicious! And I had no idea about the acidic marinade making the pork easier to digest. I’ve soaked grains, nuts, and beans before, but never pork. I’ll have to try it next time, though!

This is just what I’ve been looking for! I love ribs in the slow cooker, and I love Chinese 5-spice powder, so this is definitely the next ribs recipe I’ll be trying. Thanks! I love your blog. You write everything I wish I had time to.